Fishing report... or lack thereof.
Launched early with my wife and two sons from Safe Marine. Got to see DM and his new fish-killin' machine, Josefina. Beautiful boat, DM! Very capable and has a nice "fishy" look to it. You are right to be so proud of it!
We were greeted by flat calm seas as we left the harbor. Buoyweather was accurate. Ran out to our favorite bait reef, but not much bait around. We managed to catch a couple of sierra and a few croakers, but no macks or sardines at all.
Decisions, decisions. With still flat seas, I opted to run for the 51, figuring if I saw any sargasso or other signs of life heading south, I could drop lines and troll for dorado or skippies. Cruised out at about 35 mph, burning 20 gallons an hour. No signs of life anywhere. No flying fish, no bait schools, no birds, no sargasso - nothing. Nothing at all. Just pretty blue, hot water. The water temp ranged from 88-90 degrees all day. We did see one pod of dolphins as we neared the 51, but that was it. There was one other boat at the 51 (a Marinehouse charter) when we arrived. Cut up a sierra and everybody dropped. Nothing. We did about 5 drifts through what is normally the best part of the reef and managed to catch two gold-spotted bass. The other boat wasn't catching anything either. I saw them boat one-gold spot in the time we were there.
Headed over to the 52 to try there. Set up on the mark and everybody dropped. Nothing. Several drifts produced two more gold-spots, but that's it. By now, everybody was starting to really feel the heat. It was VERY hot and about as muggy as I've ever felt it.
Punched up the coordinates for the Witch's Hat on the GPS. About 15 miles away, but a chance for some breeze and everyone to cool off. Set up and did several drifts through this area. A couple more gold-spots and trophy-size lizardfish. By now, everybody is near heatstroke, even showering occasionally with fresh water.
Dropped back a couple rigged ballyhoo and trolled for about an hour in the lifeless water. No takers. Finally, pulled lines and headed back for the harbor about 2:30 to keep some breeze moving over the boat.
DM got in just ahead of us from south by Desombeque with the same results we had - no fish and heatstroke. I hear this morning that Ric had a decent day fishing the 20-22 further north. Maybe he'll chime in. My advice would be don't bother going south for a few weeks until the water/air starts to cool off a bit. If there's any dorado out there right now, they are probably deep in cooler water! But overall, covering 100+ miles on the water this weekend, it was a bluewater desert.
Launched early with my wife and two sons from Safe Marine. Got to see DM and his new fish-killin' machine, Josefina. Beautiful boat, DM! Very capable and has a nice "fishy" look to it. You are right to be so proud of it!
We were greeted by flat calm seas as we left the harbor. Buoyweather was accurate. Ran out to our favorite bait reef, but not much bait around. We managed to catch a couple of sierra and a few croakers, but no macks or sardines at all.
Decisions, decisions. With still flat seas, I opted to run for the 51, figuring if I saw any sargasso or other signs of life heading south, I could drop lines and troll for dorado or skippies. Cruised out at about 35 mph, burning 20 gallons an hour. No signs of life anywhere. No flying fish, no bait schools, no birds, no sargasso - nothing. Nothing at all. Just pretty blue, hot water. The water temp ranged from 88-90 degrees all day. We did see one pod of dolphins as we neared the 51, but that was it. There was one other boat at the 51 (a Marinehouse charter) when we arrived. Cut up a sierra and everybody dropped. Nothing. We did about 5 drifts through what is normally the best part of the reef and managed to catch two gold-spotted bass. The other boat wasn't catching anything either. I saw them boat one-gold spot in the time we were there.
Headed over to the 52 to try there. Set up on the mark and everybody dropped. Nothing. Several drifts produced two more gold-spots, but that's it. By now, everybody was starting to really feel the heat. It was VERY hot and about as muggy as I've ever felt it.
Punched up the coordinates for the Witch's Hat on the GPS. About 15 miles away, but a chance for some breeze and everyone to cool off. Set up and did several drifts through this area. A couple more gold-spots and trophy-size lizardfish. By now, everybody is near heatstroke, even showering occasionally with fresh water.
Dropped back a couple rigged ballyhoo and trolled for about an hour in the lifeless water. No takers. Finally, pulled lines and headed back for the harbor about 2:30 to keep some breeze moving over the boat.
DM got in just ahead of us from south by Desombeque with the same results we had - no fish and heatstroke. I hear this morning that Ric had a decent day fishing the 20-22 further north. Maybe he'll chime in. My advice would be don't bother going south for a few weeks until the water/air starts to cool off a bit. If there's any dorado out there right now, they are probably deep in cooler water! But overall, covering 100+ miles on the water this weekend, it was a bluewater desert.
